A picture worth a thousand laughs...

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After the pumpkin patch...

So there is a story about what happened AFTER the pumpkin patch last weekend.  I know...who would have thought a day could be more thrilling than what I've already described?!!!

Well, poorly planned that it was...we headed to the pumpkin patch right at lunch time....without eating first.  So by the time we'd picked our pumpkins and paid for them we were all starving.  We stopped in a small town on the way back home and parked and ate.  Well, we ate...Bella played (literally) with her food...

And then she took random photos of us....

Anywho...when we were done eating, playing and posing...we went to get in our car and discovered that a Kirwa Festival was going on.  Perhaps you remember the Kirwa post from a few years ago?  Its when they spend hours raising a huge 100 foot tree into upright position through the manual labor of the males?  And girls flounce around pouring beer into mugs for the laboring fellows to drink from...

Well, yep not only did we find a Kirwa Festival, but the tree was blocking our car from leaving the lot. 

FOUR HOURS LATER...I drove us home because John had decided to help raise the Kirwa tree thus negating his ability to drive (remember beer?)

And to top it all off...Bella had a potty accident and I didn't have any extra clothes so I wrapped her in my sweater and made them look like MC Hammer pants.  Oh...you should have seen the looks us crazy Americans got on this cold day watching the Kirwa with a little girl in MC Hammer pants playing in the dirt with no shoes/socks.  I truly felt like I'd grown up in the smallest of towns in Oregon...

Oh wait...I did.

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Why I married him...

While looking through my photos from the past month I found that we had snapped quite a few photos of John posed with a statue.

And  I couldn't stop laughing...

His Nacho Libre pose on the back of the babies...

Kissing the woman in repose at the outside gallery...

Peekaboo with a Pope...

Snuggled up for a snooze with "grandpa" outside the restaurant we went to for dinner...

Adoring the children...

And then I had to add this one just because it made me laugh.  I was TRYING to get a nice photo of myself...arm out...ready to snap the picture and he jumped in front of it. 

Laughter...its one of the reasons I married him. Read More...

Dogcatcherz...

Bella is playing soccer this fall.  We wanted to get her into a sport that would help her socialize and build skills like teamwork and running and kicking.  Not that I have designs on Bella kicking and then running away...its the coordination aspects that we were hoping she would improve on...So, when I checked the schedule I saw 3 to 5 year old soccer was on and put her on the waitlist.

 Yes, I know she's still not three...but the age cutoff was November 15th...so she slides in exactly TWO days under the cutoff date for being able to play. 

And then...because the waitlist was 60 players long...guess who volunteered to be a Bambino Soccer coach...just so his daughter could play???

Wave hello to Coach John!  His t-shirt reads, "Teamwork...a lot of people doing what I say" but I think the significance of that just gets lost somehow on these little Bambino players.  This is only a partial showing of our team...we've got 8 little kids total.

Our team name is officially the Stingerz because they played a game where they got "stung" by the ball, but we changed it to Dogcatcherz because the drill that literally makes our little team run is them pretending to be dogcatcherz going to catch the dog (ball).  Yeah...we've won every game.  We rock.

And yes...that is dogcatcherz with a Z because we're cool like that.

So, just in case you've never actually been to a Bambino soccer game let me tell you what its like.

First, there is a lot of running...kind of like this...

Then you take a break.

Yes...the game is still going on....but when you need to rest...you just gotta rest.

Then...more running occurs...

And then you take another break...

Then just a little more running...

And if you don't make the goal you get to pout a little like this...

And your coach makes fun of you...but just a little bit.  :)

And there you have it.  Bambino Soccer at its finest!

You know you want to come to our next game.  :) Read More...

Love Locks

I know these have been around for centuries, but the first time I ever saw a love lock was in Prague and after hearing the sentiment behind it I am bound and determined to lock one on this gate the 6th time I visit this city.

Legend has it when you find your true love you write your names on a lock and then throw the key into the river...

I didn't know this when I was there otherwise I would have been checking out the river to see if I could find a pile of keys down there.  Either way...I loved this idea..I find it incredibly romantic.

And since I've found the love of my life...well, I guess its time for a love lock.  :)

Can't you see the love? Read More...

Two little green tomatoes

I want to tell you the story of two little green tomatoes. 

It started in February this year when the expectant gardner got all her gardening stuff ready to go so that in March she could start her little tomato plants.

Then an unexpected trip that lasted the WHOLE MONTH OF APRIL came up and instead of starting her tomato plants and hoping they'd survive under the care of someone else...she waited and didn't plant them until May.

Well, as most tomato plant stories go...the plants grew and were green and beautiful...

But there were no tomatoes.  And even though the gardner was sad she got no tomatoes she was glad that she had tried because it brightened up her backyard and gave people the impression that she had a green thumb even though it was apparent that her plants were "special" and just kind of did what they wanted.  (kind of like her child...who just happens to be extra stubborn these days...)

And then one unsuspecting day at the end of September when tomato plants should be done and dying she found to her great surprise and delight...

Two little green tomatoes.

I don't suspect they will actually grow and ripen...but we are having some unexpectedly warm weather right now....?

And in the end instead of giving up on her garden dream...now this gardner is already thinking and planning her next year's foray into tomato plants and zucchini plants and strawberry plants. Yummmmmmmmmm.... Read More...

A look into the future...

The other week while out at a local DEEELISH chinese restaurant...(yes, they do have good chinese food in Germany!)...we got these fortunes.

Yep.  We were just as troubled by our inability to understand what the future had in store for us.  So, we asked Bella to do the fortune dance...and she did this...

So I did it too...

And, of course John needed to take his turn.

And then a magical thing happened...we turned the fortunes over and all was made clear. 

ha ha ha ha...ok..dumb, I know...but it was good chinese food...check it out!

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I like dad's pecs.

Having a two year old means being graphic.  Yup...graphic in what we call body parts...graphic in how we describe things...graphic in how we talk about body functions...

So...big news here...

Bella is potty trained.  WOOOOOOOHOOOOOO!  Did I yell that loud enough for you all to hear?  Yes, she has an occassional accident, but they are few and far between.  She's motivated by her sticker chart and an extra treat of M&Ms when it comes to doing #2...

That being said,

**sorry...we had to take a short break for me to cheer on some "poops."  Which, just to prove my point are being called by the two year old after a long inspection "little wormy poops."  Way to much information, right?  Yeah...welcome to my life right now.*

ANYWHO...I didn't get on here to talk about potty stuff.  I mostly wanted to relate the funniest convesation from this morning.

I got out of the shower and was getting dressed.  John was in the room getting ready to head into work.  Bella walks in and says, "Hey mom, those are your boobs.  Daddy likes those boobs." 

Trying REALLY hard not to laugh out loud while John muffled his giggles in the background...I merely replied with an, "Oh yeah?"

She continued, "Yeah...you have boobs and dad has pecs.  You like dad's pecs.  Right mom?"

At this point John and I couldn't contain the laughter.  "Yep, Bella.  I like dad's pecs."

I can't wait to hear what comes next... Read More...

The Tale of Schloss Weissenstein

It started out a sad story, but in the end the Tale of Schloss Weissenstein is a happy little story about three adventurers in Germany. 

We left the house on a mission to find some ruins to wander through...  2 hours later we were discouraged and a little grumpy.  (I wasn't grumpy...JOHN was grumpy.)  Ok...I was grumpy...  We had made it to our destination via GPS coordinates and alas...it was the middle of a town and there were zero castle ruins to be found.  So we got out the map and plotted how we might get to the "red triangle" from where we were.  I suggested just 4 wheeling it...but John didn't think our little Subaru could handle the uphill wooded terrain. 

Wimpy.

Instead we just kept driving...and just when we were about to give up and turn around we saw THE SIGN.

Schloss Weissenstein!

It was rainy and super humid.  Yucky combination for those of us accustomed to Pacific Northwest rain with no humidity.  We hopped out at the trailhead to see how far the ruins were from the parking area and Bella and I did a little happy dance when we discovered it was only 1.5 Kilometers!  That's less than a mile. 

I think their measuring was wrong...we walked much more than a mile...but then again it might have been the paths we took...that is one bad thing about living in Germany and speaking German as badly as I speak it.  I can't read the signs...unless they say things like, "W.C.", Toilletten, Gasthaus...  But if it says, Castle is this way....  I can essentially read the word castle and thats about it.

Anyhow...we started off...and would you believe it when I saw this...

Here we are spending family time walking down a gorgeous wooded German trail and he's texting?  There is something very wrong with this picture.  He put it away quickly...I think I shamed him into it.

Part of the trail was incredibly fun to walk on...roots, rocks, dips...it reminded me of the kinds of woods I imagine in the Little Red Riding Hood story...

We were just getting to the point of thinking we must have made a wrong turn when we turned a corner and saw this...

Taduum!  The ruins of Schloss Weissenstein....aren't they amazing.  Essentially it was a castle built into those giant granite rock structures.  It wasn't very big, but it was incredibly interesting and beautiful....

We explored around the bottom first...it was mostly tumbled rock wall, overgrown vegetation (with WAY too much stinging nettle for my liking) and little dirt trails down to the lower walls...and then we found her...

She was just sitting there in a little clearing...with some German inscription I couldn't read, but I thought she was beautiful...she reminds me a little bit of my sister, Emma.  Its the hair and the face...  Beautiful.

We found some hidden nooks and crannies and I had to examine the precarious nature of the overhangs.  Huge holes where there must have been rock at some point.  It was just amazing to me how much work went into shaping this castle home.

And then it was time to go up...

All the way to the top structure and then up the scariest stares ever that were about 5 inches deep to the tippity top of the castle...

But the view was amazing and totally worth the climb...

And then we looked down....

And then we WALKED down...and took a picture of our humid trip to the ruins...

 
And went home happy and satisfied.  :)

The end. Read More...